Malloy announces panel members on the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission

HARTFORD -- A mix of state and national experts on mental health, engineering and public safety are aware that they could be helping to set national policy as they look for ways to reduce gun violence and protect schoolchildren in light of the massacre in Newtown.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced the 15 panel members on the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission Tuesday who will issue a preliminary report by March 15 as the state legislature starts its own work on a parallel course.

Adam Lanza, 20, opened fire with a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle equipped with a high-capacity magazine, killing 20 first-graders and six adults at the school Dec. 14, before taking his own life.

The horrific deaths of so many children have been the catalyst for discussion of gun control where other mass killings have failed to stir the nation.

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Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson, who will chair the commission, said the process will be an open one with its meetings held around the state to get feedback on the proper infrastructure to protect children in schools, the delivery of mental health services and controlled access to guns.

Jackson, who has served on other panels appointed by Malloy, said the one thing he has learned from those experiences is that you can't predict the outcome or what will consume the most time.

The commission is heavy on expertise on mental health, which is the most complicated and hardest topic to tackle.

"It is one of the most challenging, but the most rewarding," said Wayne Sandford, a professor at the University of New Haven who is a former fire chief in East Haven and the former deputy commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.

He was referring to potential changes that could help teachers identify children who need help and a system to provide that help.

Lanza's state of mind and what led up to the killings are unknown at this point as investigators try to piece together his motives.

The members of the panel were announced on the anniversary of the shooting spree in Tucson, Ariz., by Jared Lee Loughner, where 13 people were injured, including former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and six were killed in 2011. It also took place as James Holmes was on trial in the mass killing and injury of patrons at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., this past July.

Dr. Harold I. Schwartz, psychiatrist in chief and vice president of behaviorial health at the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital, another member, said the panel presents "an opportunity, perhaps a golden moment" to look at the delivery of mental health services which are considerably lacking.

Given how complicated the system is, however, he said there was the "small possibility" that it could lead to improved screening and resources reaching a broader spectrum of the population.

Referring to the recent report of the Office of Healthcare Access, Schwartz said mental health services are "very very unevenly distributed," with no access for middle class insurance holders for the psycho-social or vocational rehabilitation that would benefit patients.

Schwartz said the topic of outpatient commitment for severely psychotic patients who don't recognize they are sick and refuse to engage in treatment should be discussed."Arguably it is effective," Schwartz said, which means there is also an argument that it doesn't work.

Connecticut is one of a handful of states that does not allow outpatient commitment, which is court- ordered coercive treatment for patients who are not hospitalized.

Schwartz called the denial of mental health care by some insurers "a disgrace" that fails to meet the standard of parity between physical health and mental health treatment, a situation he deals with constantly.

Also on the commission is Robert Ducibella, who is a founding member of a security firm, Ducibella Venter & Santore, that was involved in the design of the World Trade Center properties and other high profile developments.

Dr. Adrienne Bentman, director of adult psychiatry at the Institute of Living; Ron Chivinski, a teacher at the Newtown Middle School and Terry Edelstein, the former head of the Connecticut Community Providers Association, who is now Malloy's liaison with the nonprofit community, are also on the commission.

Also, Kathleen Flaherty, who is a staff attorney at Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut and a trainer at the National Alliance for Mental Illness in Connecticut; Alice Forrester, executive director at the Clifford Beers Guidance Clinic in New Haven; Dr. Ezra Griffith, professor emeritus of and senior research scientist in psychiatry at Yale University; Patricia Keavney-Maruca, member of the state Board of Education; Christopher Lyddy, outgoing state representative from the 106th District and program manager at Advanced Trauma Solutions.

Also, Denis McCarthy, fire chief of Norwalk; Barbara O'Connor, director of public safety and chief of police at the University of Connecticut; Dr. David Schonfeld, director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement at the University of Cincinnati Department of Pediatrics and Bernard R. Sullivan, former police chief in Hartford.